This was great. Just be warned it’s quite violent and depressing.
I love these kinds of dark fantasy settings. It reminds me of Berserk except even bleaker: humans live behind enormous walls, cowering in fear of killer giants that roam the countryside.
The first episode introduces us to the characters by showing a bit of daily life, followed by the giants breaching the wall and causing havoc. I assume later arcs will show the brother and sister after they’ve grown up.
My favorite scene was when the mother is telling the kids to run, and the blonde soldier comes along and declares that he’ll defeat the monster. He goes off to do battle, takes one look at the monster, and turns around. A very effective way to convey how completely overpowered the humans here are.
I might blog this… it’ll probably be depressing though. Actually I’m not sure if this or Aku no Hana will end up being more depressing.
I’ve read both works. Aku no Hana isn’t depressing, but unsettling. This one is depressing.
You’re right, unsettling is a much better words to describe Aku no Hana.
The manga for this series reminds me of Ares. Both have a similar archaic military atmosphere (especially later in the series) and some of the art appears similar too. Both series are quite violent as well.
I also think Shingeki no Kyojin will be more depressing than Aku no Hana, given that this is getting 25 episodes vs. 13 for the latter.
I haven’t read either of the mangas.
Yeah, as Mr. A said, Aku no Hana is more “unsettling” than depressing. Thirteen episodes should be plenty for Aku no Hana though.
I haven’t read the manga but I have heard all kind of hype for it, but will the director be able to pull away from what he did to Guilty Crown? We shall see…I suspect fans will have a fit if he goes anime original creating filler! I am curious to see what happens next time and one thing is clear the animation is AWESOME; however can it maintain that epic feel for 12 or 20+ episodes? Again we shall see xD
Creepy giants ftw~
Oh wait this is the directory of Guilty Crown? Ahahaha oh man…
I’d say they’re different kinds of depressing. Well, to some people at least.
This show is excellent though.
You know, now that you say that, I’ve changed my mind once again. Aku no Hana’s portrayal of humanity is in a way more depressing than just having people die.
The scene w/ the blonde soldier was indeed awesome. But I wonder how humankind lost its ingenuity in developing capable weapons. I mean, if there’s one thing humans are good at it’s finding new ways of warfare, no? On today’s technological level it could hardly be a problem to get rid of those giants I’d think. But perhaps there happened some other apocalyptic event which brought the giants and set back humanity’s development at the same time.
Productionwise the episode looked very detailed but had a lot of still frames as well. Also, it seems to me that some characters (e.g. the giants) are 3D models, like in the Berserk movies. It would be a shame if this were a trend in anime, having only the backgrounds drawn and the characters as 3D. I hope at least KyoAni will stick to 2D for a while. Still I’m happy that Production I.G. is making awesome series again!
I hope you don’t mind my late comments. I’m still catching up w/ last season but I couldn’t help but watch the first ep. of Shingeki no Kyoujin already. This, Aku no Hana and Railgun at the same time make for a really promising season!
The humans stage of development seems to be late medieval, with cannons having only recently been developed. Plus grappling hooks. Seeing how those giants deflected the cannonballs like they were nothing, and the presumed intelligence of that giant who ran towards the gate, it’s reasonable that the humans wouldn’t defeat the giants. What’s truly strange about the whole situation, however, is the fact that humans didn’t go extinct long ago. How did the walls get there in the first place? Clearly either the giants didn’t exist at some point in the past, and / or the humans had some higher level of technology that allowed them to build these enormous walls without getting overrun.
I used to hate the 3D models but now I don’t mind them so much. Heck I enjoyed Noein, this is nothing.
I never mind comments, late or otherwise!